Five years ago this month, a disturbed young man armed with an assault rifle and two handguns walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and turned his deadly distress on first graders, killing 20 of them and six adults trying to protect them. The massacre of children horrified us. The president shed tears on behalf of a grieving nation. Congressional bills were introduced to make it harder for dangerous people to possess guns and to ban assault weapons.

But in the end, Congress offered its thoughts and prayers, and moved on. Nothing changed.

For many Americans, this congressional shrug following the Sandy Hook massacre became the watershed moment when our country’s identity changed. America changed from balancing individual rights and the public good to placing gun rights above even the rights of children to live to the ripe old age of 7. Suddenly it was undeniable that our elected representatives were subservient to the gun industry, unwilling to even attempt to prevent mass shootings, not to mention address our gun homicide rate that’s 25 times the average of other wealthy countries (American Journal of Medicine).

It doesn’t need to be this way. Evidence shows that the right to bear arms and dramatically improved gun safety can co-exist.

For instance, in the 19 states (Minnesota isn’t one of them) that have closed the criminal background check loophole — extending required checks to include the 40 percent of sales from private sellers such as at gun shows and online — deaths have been reduced by nearly 50 percent (EverytownResearch.org).

Another example: According to FBI data gathered since its 1996 enactment, the Lautenberg Amendment banning the possession of firearms by people convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence — or having a protection/restraining order — has prevented 195,000 people from purchasing firearms. However, efforts to expand this life-saving coverage to include dating partners or other family members have not found sufficient support in Congress, in spite of the fact that the presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed (American Journal of Public Health).

This is an agonizing time — and a vexing issue — for the concerned citizen infused with an optimistic belief that concerted action on behalf of the common good will win the day. It’s like we’re caught in a maze of horrors with no way out. There are proposed solutions in different paths but, try as we might, there’s an NRA-sponsored politician blocking every hopeful path, waving a Second Amendment banner in our face. Meanwhile the clock ticks — often only a few seconds — till the next preventable death by gun.

That the Second Amendment permits gun regulation was unambiguously upheld even in the 2008 Supreme Court decision that opened the door to individual ownership of guns. In the 5-4 majority opinion, Chief Justice Scalia wrote “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited … not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose … nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt … on laws impos­ing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

Surveys show that most Americans share a belief in sensible gun laws. Most recently, both the Gallup and Quinnipiac polls taken this October show 60 percent of Americans support stricter gun laws. It would seem the large majority of us expect that with rights go responsibilities.

Yet, as if culturally tone-deaf, the first bill passed by the U.S. House since the recent spate of mass shootings — Concealed Carry Reciprocity — would make it easier for people to carry guns anywhere, even those who can’t pass a background check. If Congress refused to act after Sandy Hook, we shouldn’t be surprised at its latest kowtowing to the gun lobby.

While individual states have had some success in enacting reasonable and effective gun laws like background checks on all gun sales and protections against domestic violence, Congress has the unique power to quickly pass measures that safeguard our daily lives and, ultimately, define our national identity.

What will it take for the U.S. to begin to shed its gun-dominated identity and rejoin the ranks of civilized nations that place paramount value on the lives of their citizens?

Rich Cowles of Eagan, a retired nonprofit leader, is a volunteer for gun violence prevention groups.

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